Tears of Justice
by song six
Summary: No one saw it coming. Who knew this would happen to their friend? The team feels utterly useless as they watch Superboy suffer, and he can't even cry for his own pain now.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own 'Young Justice'

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><p>'Tears of Justice'<p>

by Song Six

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><p>Superboy and Robin walked along the hallways of Mount Justice looking for the resident speedster. The other day, the clone told the Boy Wonder about how he had never heard of Mario, much less a game station. In excitement, Robin gathered up some of his favorite games and brought his ole game cube to Happy Harbor for the teen to try out. He couldn't go through his adolescent years never hearing of Zelda, Pokemon, Mario, and all the other lovable Nintendo characters. It would be a crime!<p>

They walked passed an open door before backtracking finding Wally rushing around a small brown room full of multiple shelves. He seemed to have been cleaning up the place.

"Hey Kid, what are you doing?" Superboy asked, as the speedster completely ignored their presence as he went about his business.

Robin wanted to knock the feathery tool out of his hand for not paying attention to them, "Yeah, we wanted to know if you want to play **Super Smash Bros** with us."

Hearing the name of his favorite game he finally stopped in his tracks- "That sounds awesome! And I'm just dusting off my souvenirs." – he totally owned at Melee.

"Wii or gamecube?" Kid Flash asked dropping the duster.

Robin smirked, "Gamecube."

"_Nice_. Can't beat the classics," technically the classics were Nintendo 64 games, but you get the point.

Conner walked around curiously looking at the few objects he had. Many of the shelves were empty. One strange item caught his eye - "Where did this come from?" – it was a robotic eyeball with burnt wires attached to the back. It stared at him in a frightning matter.

Wally ran over and grabbed it from his hands. He placed it delicately back on the shelf, but not before spraying Windex on it and scrubbing it down with a cloth. Superboy was slightly offended, but Wally didn't care. He turned around and answered the clone, "Remember? it was from our first mission with Miss Martian."

"Riiight, I remember," Robin commented remembering the disaster it started out as. But it had shown that they have really grown as a strong team now compared to back then.

"What if it's bugged?" Conner asked, looking at it skeptically.

Kid Flash rolled his eyes at him before jerking his thumb at his best friend, "Please Supey, don't tell me you're getting as paranoid as Boy Hacker over here?"

Robin frowned at him before walking over and slapping him over the head, "Save it Kid Dork."

The two boys started to get into a banter about maturity and how it was possible for Robin to even reach the top of his head. They glared each other down with crossed arms, and most of the argument consisted of "Dude, Really?" and "Kid idiot." But Superboy was more interested in the other objects then to pay attention to their fighting. Walking along the room, he spotted out a shiny bronzy gold helmet atop a slim aged black book.

"What's This?" he asked pointing at the helmet, just in time before Robin yanked out his utility belt. Kid Flash ran up eagerly to explain.

"Oh yeah, the whole Dr. Fate deal." He proudly stated, it was one of his most notable souvenirs in the 'Museum of Wallace West'.

Robin walked over with confusion on his face, "Dr. Fate?"

"The mission _you_ missed doing your dynamic duo thing or whatever." Wally stuck his tongue out at him crossing his arms. He always had to rub into Robin's face how he missed out on that crazy adventure. Even though it was only one of many.

A mischievous look flashed across his face as he responded, "I heard your body got_ infiltrated _by an old guy."

Wally dropped his jaw in surprise before frowning and glaring at the short boy, "Hardy har har Rob."

"I don't get it." They both look to Superboy and snickered. The bigger of the three glared at them, he hated it when people laughed at him. Especially these two, they did it much too often.

"Toilet humor Conner, keep up!" Robin told him patting his back. But before he could remark, the Boy Wonder grabbed the book that was underneath the helmet.

"What's with the book?" He thumbed the pages and studied the outside. The edges were worn, and the cover was made of real leather with gold etching. There was an unusual pattern on the front.

Wally didn't even hesitate or flinch when he answered, "That witch boy Klarion's diary."

"Klarion's what?" both Conner and Robin exclaimed. Wally shrugged his shoulders at them.

"Yeah, he left it behind before running off like the wimp he is to save his pet. I swear dude, that guy is more obsessed over cats than Rob's brother Da-" He stopped himself, but even if he did continue, Robin had already slapped a gloved hand over his lips. **This** was why he called him Kid Mouth sometimes.

"KF!" his friend gave a meek smile. He almost forgot that saying any of Robin's brother's names would be compromising his identity. Whoops?

Kid Flash scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "I mean let's go play some smash bros!"

Wally took the book and placed it back on the shelf. Then he grabbed Robin's hand and ran out expecting Superboy to follow after. Conner looked around to see if anyone was looking and picked up the diary. He slipped it in his back pocket, luckily it fit perfectly. He was curious to what was inside. What could hurt? He'd put it back when Kid wasn't looking. He would never pay well enough attention to notice anything missing anyway.

Later that night, when everyone was fast asleep, Superboy locked the door to his room and sat down on his bed. He was careful not to act suspicious all day. He was lucky the other boys got too distracted by the…gamecube? By the gamecube they were playing. Even Kaldur was familiar with the toys. Wally got very upset when Artemis joined in and beat him as a puffy pink ball. He believed it was called a **Kirby**?

He had been anticipating this all day, because he really was curious to see what was inside the book. It felt like it was forbidden for even kid Flash to have taken the book at all, but what could hurt reading a few pages here and there? He laid down, got himself comfy, and proceeded to read.

The first page didn't look like anything important, so he skipped over that. Each page afterwards was inked with more red words, and he'd skim here and there, but the whole thing was quite intriguing. There was even information in there that the team could utilize the next time they fought the witch boy. On top of that, a lot of the tales told inside were well written and even made his own heart wrench a bit. A lot of work was put into this little black book.

Finally, Superboy finished the book, but sunlight was streaming through his window. He didn't realize he had been reading it all night. He yawned and set the diary down on his Superman pillow.

"That was…interesting." He murmured to himself in the quiet of the morning.

He changed into a fresh pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He thought about how today Megan wanted to show him a new recipe and Robin wanted to spar. But as he sat down to slip on the new boots Batman bought him the other day something strange happened. He felt moisture dripping down his face. He touched the droplet on his cheek and brought his hand in front of him. He wasn't crying so it couldn't be-

His heart stopped.

It was red.

**Blood.**

"What the-" more blood streamed down his face, and now the sockets of his eyeballs started to burn and sting, "Ah-" he hissed as his eyes started to pulsate, and he felt what could only be described as a 'bobbing' sensation in his eyes. That's when they started to bulge and push violently.

"Ah…" He shoved his hands in front of that pair of sky blue orbs, but he could feel it. He could feel the veins ripping and _tearing_ slowly but surely. He could feel the balls rolling and bouncing about from his face! He could _see _himself from a whole different angle as his eyes hung from his head threatening to fall!

It was as if someone was taking the thread inside his head and pulling at it teasingly and painfully! Blood poured down his face and down his neck soaking his black t-shirt. It hurt, so bad.

"NO!" he screamed as one ball bobbed out, and all of the veins had finally ripped. He was now blind in one eye as the other rolled away, some of his flesh still intact.

"STOP!" he demanded in a desperate cry, but his eye just pushed and shoved and insisted.

He wanted to cry, he wanted tears, but he couldn't, "WHY IS- WHY!"

Robin slammed his door open after breaking the lock. He had been pounding on it the whole time wondering what was going on in great worry.

"Conner what's…oh my god! _Shit…_" he ran over to the horrific scene as Superboy lay on his bed screaming, and crying, or trying to, "…everyone to Superboy's room _now_!"he ordered into his comm-link fiercely. This was bad, really bad. It was such a sickening sight.

There was so much blood. Blood everywhere. Burning foul liquid came up his throat, but he swallowed. Now was not the time to puke.

"What's up Du-Supes! What's wrong with his face?" Kid Flash yelled as he sped over, he yelped when he saw rolling on the floor what looked like his first souvenir, only _real_. This was insane, it was like a nightmare.

"I don't know! Just help me!" Robin cried as he looked around for something to wrap Conner's face in. Kid Flash froze for a second, throat dry, feeling a bit woozy. He was used to bloody scenes, but the boy's eyes were falling out of his head. And it was his _friend_. Snapping into his senses he ran to the bathroom, wet a towel, and came back and proceeded to wipe the blood off his face. The other eye had finally fallen out, there was only meat hanging from his sockets. He tried his best to gently wipe without touching the exposed ripped flesh, he knew it must be agonizingly painful.

When Miss Martian and Artemis came into the room, both instantly started to tear up. Aqualad was right behind them with a medical kit ready. Robin had told him what happened over the comm-link when he couldn't find a cloth to use.

"Oh Conner! Someone get help **now**! Call the League! Oh Conner…" Miss Martian flew over to the clone while he screamed in pain. She pulled his head into her lap not giving a single damn about the oozing or crusty blood. She stroked his hair hoping to sooth him a bit, but it seemed useless.

Artemis was on her comm-link trying to contact the watchtower, "_Shit shit shit_…pick up pick up pi-Ollie? We need the League here now!" She tapped her foot vigorously looking at their poor friend. Why him? What did he do? Why did he deserve this? What happened?

"I don't have time to explain Superboy is…his eyes…just get here! He needs immediate medical attention," she shrieked into her communicator before hanging up, "Oh fuck…" she muttered.

"You're going to be ok," Robin felt like he was lying to the poor boy.

Aqualad held Superboy's hand, and Kid Flash had the other as Miss Martian wiped the blood and Robin wrapped up his head. Kaldur squeezed his hand comfortingly and whispered an Atlantian prayer under his breath. Artemis came over and sat on the bed with them, but she did not touch him. Kid Flash went through his head trying to figure out what could have happened logically. As Robin wrapped the gauze he quietly sung into Conner's ear…

"_Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…" _Alfred used to make him and his brothers watch The Sound of Music all the time, and the song always seemed to help in weary situations, "_Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens…"_

"How could this have happened? Superboy, we will get you help, try to relax your body," Kaldur said in a soft voice. All Conner could do was whimper in response, he was feeling weaker and weaker with more loss of blood.

"_Brown paper packages tied up with strings."_ He tied the end of the gauze-"_These are a few of my favorite thi-_something's wrong." -The blood…

"I wrapped this gauze around…it won't stop." There was horror in his voice.

Miss Martian hugged Superboy to her as she sobbed. In a pleading voice she cried out, "Why won't it stop?"

Artemis and the boys didn't know what to say, Superboy took her hand and squeezed it…"Megan…" this only made her cry harder, for him, because he _couldn't_.

"Damn it all."Artemis muttered

"Where the hell is Red Tornado?" Wally demanded in great aggravation

Robin look down feeling himself get flustered, "on a mission…"

"Why…why Conner…what did he ever do?" Miss Martian was devastated, they all were. Robin tried to reassure her it was going to be ok. Even if he didn't believe it himself.

"It'll be ok, we're going to try and get him help-" his comm-link clicked, "Robin to the nest? Yes. Please connect me to Dr. Thompkins." He walked away speaking hurriedly and in codes to whoever he was talking with.

A red blur suddenly entered the room with a quick breeze.

Flash had a stoic look on what you could see of his face. It was rare to see the light hearted man appear so serious. "We're here Kid, what's wrong with Superboy?"

Wally looked up at him and whimpered before pointing towards the boy the martian cradled, "Just look for yourself Flash."

"Oh my…" he was at a loss of words when he saw that his eyes…they were gone. Batman had finally entered the scene, the rest of the league not too far behind. Even Superman came

J'ohn gently tried to pull his niece away from him, but she would not budge. With a grave voice Batman gave his orders, "Manhunter, get him to the zeta beams. **Now**. The rest of you, let us take care of this." Miss Martian looked up at him with sad eyes before kissing the top of Conner's forehead and handing him over to her uncle.

A small hand tugged at his cape, "Batman, is he going to be ok?"

Batman would normally kneel down and comfort the boy, but they were in uniform. So, he just looked down at him as Robin sniffed and cried, "I can't answer that right now Robin. You and Aqualad, just get the team together and get a grip on everything. We will do our best."

His heart ached for his friend, and he wished someone would tell _him_ it was going to be fine. But he had to be satisfied with what they had for the moment, "A-Alright."

Superboy was brought out and the Justice League left the five super heroed teens. They sat in Conner's room lifelessly feeling useless. They were used to violence, gore, and blood, but when it was someone you knew it was different. When it was your teammate it was different. When it was your _friend_ who you found to love and cherish it was _always_ different.

"What could have gone wrong, what could have happened?" Artemis whispered when no one said anything for far too long.

"Maybe his laser vision kicked in and he couldn't take it?" Wally suggested sincerely, he wouldn't joke at a time like this.

Aqualad walked around studying the room trying to see if he could figure what could have gone wrong. There was blood everywhere. At least the League had picked up Superboy's…_eyes_. His body shivered at the thought, it was strange having to even think such a thing.

Wally could not erase the image himself, of those beautiful sky blue eyes staring up at him from the floor of the room. It was just sick. It was wrong. Luckily, no one else had to see them, they immediately gave Superboy their attention. The image would haunt his dreams for a long time.

"Maybe someone broke in and ambushed him?" Robin suggested going through his holo-computer checking the security cameras.

Aqualad was about to reply when he saw an unusual book on the bed. There was a bit of blood on it, but otherwise was fine. There was a strange pattern on the front cover. He opened it up to the first page and read the inscription before tossing it to the Boy Wonder.

"No, look at this…" Robin caught the book and he gasped. Kid Flash looked over and saw what it was…

"Klarion's diary! He must have read it! _Damn it all…_" he yelled as he punched a wall. What was he doing with the god forsaken diary?

"Klarion's diary? How did he even get ahold of Klarion's diary?" Miss Martian screeched as she cried into her hands.

Artemis grabbed Wally by the collar of his shirt and slammed him against the wall, "Dammit Wally! This is all _your _fault!"

Anger flowed through his body and his face heated up. Something was caught in his throat, and he spit out to the side of him, "My fault?" he shoved the archer away from him forcibly, "He's a grown boy, how am I supposed to constantly have him on watch? I didn't want this to happen…_Christ._" He felt terrible, he felt this was his fault.

Miss Martian looked at him with glistening tired brown eyes, "Wally…how could you?"

"Megs…I didn't I-" he stopped talking and slumped down burying his face in his hands. His heart broke. He failed them. He let his friend get hurt. He didn't deserve to be a hero. This is what he got for doing something as silly as keeping memorabilia for each fight. What kind of idiot would even do that?

"It was Superboy's own fault." They all looked to Kaldur surprised he would say such a thing.

"How can you say that Kaldur?" Robin demanded

"Because, look at the first page." He responded with a serious tone.

They were all silent as they watched Robin open the book and scan the text as their leader commanded. He read slowly and carefully making sure not to miss a single word before looking up in exasperation, "What is this?"

Aqualad gestured for all of them to circle around him. He took the diary out of Robin's hands and held it up to the first page for all of them to see, "It's called an _author's note_ you see."

They all held confused expressions not sure what he was saying, "There was a warning on it. It already told him he shouldn't read it or else his eyes would fall out."

No one said anything seemingly waiting to see what Miss Martian had to say. Finally her breathing was back to normal from crying and she responded, "So it was Superboy's fault for not reading that?"

"Percisely."

"Wow. So he had the energy to read the _whole damn thing_. But he didn't even bother with the author's note?" Artemis remarked with annoyance etched in her tone

Aqualad nodded, "That seems to be what has happened."

"You're right, it is his own fault." Artemis decided crossing her arms

"Yep, Conner definitely should have known." Robin shook his head and laughed

"Superboy, you silly clone," giggled Miss Martian

Kid Flash swung his arms over Robin and Aqualad playfully, "Hey! Does that mean we can call Supey **Jericho** now?" They all laughed joyfully

"Wrong disability Kid!" Artemis hooted

"Naaah, it just means we're going to have to get him an eye seeing dog, Like a super one…Krypto perhaps?" Aqualad suggested

"Sounds like a good idea to me!" Robin exclaimed already on it contacting Superman.

Aqualad placed his hands on his hips and gave them a winning white sparkly smile, "Good! Now who wants frosty chocolate milk shakes?"

"I do! I do! I do!" the other four chorused jumping up and down in glee! They then hopped onto Miss Martian's bioship and made their way to the nearest malt shop.

"Hah! Hah! Hah! Isn't life great?" Aqualad boasted in a deep hearty chortle.

Young Justice would never be the same again from that point. They burned the book, but they could never get over the travesty of the loss of Superboy's sight. Despite the fact, the chocolate milk shakes were delicious and refreshing. Eventually they disbanded and went their separate ways. It was a sad and terrible ending to such a wonderful team. But it just goes to show you…

Read the Author's Notes.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I may get flames or complaints for this, but I hope this is a lesson to you all. Read the Author's notes of any story you read. it's there for a reason. Most times there is relevant information, like telling you if there's any back story you need to Know. Or maybe something about the reasoning of what they put in the story. or to let you know there is an existing sequel. Most times, if you have questions or concerns about a story you can find the answer in the Author's note. So be sure to read it. You read the stories, you can read the notes.

To those who already do, thankyou. All author's are thankful that you do so.

For those who _still_ won't read this note and _still_ not get the point of this and will _still_ write a review saying "this was a terrible angst story and they were OOC" and legitimately believe Aqualad is an ass and the team really did go out and celebrate the suffering of Superboy then...I have no clue what to do about that. Thankyou for reading and lemme know what you think!


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